Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian) · other

Tetradrachm (Coin) Portraying Ptolemy I Soter

Source of record: Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian) — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

Obverse: Head of Ptolemy I to right, diademed and wearing aegis; partial border of dots Reverse: Eagle standing on thunderbolt to left, at left the letter P and a monogram, countermark at right

AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano

Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.

Two views of a silver coin showing the profile of a ruler on one side and an armed, standing figure (likely a monarch in military/royal iconography) with surrounding inscription on the other.

The image presents a pair of coin reverses/obverses against a plain grey background. On the left (obverse) there is a left-facing male profile with curly hair and a diadem/fillet; fine wear marks are visible on the portrait field. On the right (reverse) there is a full/half-length figure holding a spear-like implement and standing beside a small base/ground line; above and around the figure are short curved/linear marks consistent with coin inscriptions (appearing Greek-like in form), though the exact characters are not legible enough to transcribe confidently. No Egyptian hieroglyphs or cartouches are clearly identifiable in the provided resolution. The museum catalogue description indicates Ptolemy I Soter, and a ruler portrait is consistent with that, but the specific “Ptolemy I Soter” name/callout cannot be confirmed from legible text here.

royal Hellenistic Period (Ptolemaic), early 3rd century BCE (approx., per catalogue) good
Royals Ptolemy I Soter (catalogue identification; not textually confirmed in image)
Materials Silver (coin metal)
Signs Inscription-like marks (not legible; likely Greek)

Connections

Royals Ptolemy I

Cross-references (1)

  • ARTIC-id 95975 tier-2
About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian).
  • AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
  • Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
  • Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.